Ga. renters gain protections under newly signed law
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Renters in Georgia just got more protections under the law, bringing the state up to speed after decades of falling behind on the power balance between landlords and their tenants.
House Bill 404, signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday, requires landlords to provide rental housing “fit for human habitability.”
The state will reference the existing Georgia health code to provide a definition for that and when the law officially takes effect on July 1, renters will finally have some teeth to their complaints to code enforcement or even in a court of law if landlords refuse to make necessary changes.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous that we have to have this as public policy and legislation,” said Alison Johnson, executive director of the Housing Justice League in Atlanta.
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In addition to their day-to-day work, for the past few years, Johnson and her group have been working with tenants of the now-condemned Forest Cove apartment complex in southeast Atlanta. Crumbling walls and floors, rat infestations, lack of electricity or running water in some cases, the often violence-plagued Forest Cove apartments closed in 2023.
The grim images from the complex stoked an appetite in the General Assembly to get rental protections in place.
“Without Forest Cove and many other participants, (HB) 404 doesn’t exist right now,” said Johnson. “Now that there are measures and processes in place, (tenants) are now able to hold landlords able. There’s more visibility around these issues. Because again, there are many more Forest Coves in the City of Atlanta and in the state of Georgia to be clear.”
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There are other important protections in the bill, like a grace period for renters who can’t pay their rent. Now, landlords have to wait three days after the due date before filing for eviction in court. It also caps rental security deposits at the rate of two months’ worth of rent.
Before Kemp signed the bill, Georgia was one of only a handful of states without a guaranteed right to a habitable living condition.
“Most states adopted this over 50 years ago,” said Elizabeth Appley, a Georgia housing lobbyist who, along with groups like the Housing Justice League, helped get the bill ed.
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“Every eviction in Georgia costs over $11,000 in the cost of emergency shelter, emergency room visits, medical hospitalization,” she said. “The problem is, people have no place to go and that’s why they end up tolerating this. Because we have a drastic shortage of housing at every income level in Georgia.”
Both Appley and Johnson agree there is still far more ground to be covered on housing in Georgia. They’d both like to see amplified construction of affordable housing around the state, and a more reliable — perhaps permanent — emergency rental assistance program.
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